The purposes of paradise: U.S. tourism and empire in Cuba and Hawai'i

'The Purposes of Paradise' explores the ways travel and tourism shaped U.S. imperialism in Cuba and Hawai'i. More broadly, Skwiot's comparative approach underscores continuity, as well as change, in US imperial thought and practice across the 19th and 20th centuries and across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Comparing the relationships of Cuba and Hawai'i with the US, Skwiot argues, offers a way to revisit assumptions about formal versus informal empire, territorial versus commercial imperialism, and direct versus indirect rule.